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justabigassnerd · 3 months ago

Text

Reunion

Pairing - Tim Bradford x reader

Word count - 5,765

Warnings - inaccurate medical, military, and police scenes, sexist comments, mentions of domestic abuse, gun violence, blood, swearing, teeny bit of angst

Summary - years after the last time Tim Bradford had seen you, you turn up at Mid-Wilshire as his rookie

A/N - hey y'all! so so sorry it's been a while with no fics. I truly have no excuse and I hope the wait was worth it. this was an anon request so I truly hope this was worth the wait and I did your idea justice. I won't ramble but as per y'all please send in requests, feedback, and enjoy!!!

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Most people who worked with Tim Bradford knew about his past in the military. They knew he had served on two tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. But they didn’t know about you and the friendship he had with you. You had served under Tim’s command on both deployments and had been his clear favourite of the whole regiment, but after an event, the two of you ended up parting ways against your own wishes and left Tim believing he was destined not to have nice things.

That was until one fateful day when you stepped into the Mid-Wilshire station.

You had arrived bright and early ready for roll call. You had just completed your time at the police academy and now you were reporting for duty on your first day of being a rookie. Upon entering, you got directions to the locker room and made your way to your allocated locker to change into your uniform before making your way out to the rec room and sitting in the front row with the other rookie. You recognised the older rookie from your time in the academy but your paths hadn’t really crossed often. You used the opportunity to get to know your fellow rookie while the room filled up before Sergeant Grey stood at the front of the room to begin the roll call. After he had gone through the normal briefings for the day, Grey turned his attention to you and the other rookie sat in the front row.

“As you can see we have two new rookies. If you could please stand up and introduce yourself and then I’ll assign you to your training officers.” Grey says as you both nod, bracing your hands on the table in front of you and easing yourself to your feet.

“I’m y/n l/n. It’s nice to meet you all.” You say, briefly surveying the room yet somehow missing Tim’s presence entirely and his reaction to realising it was you. Tim watched you quietly, unable to believe that after all these years of no communication, he was finally seeing you again. All attention then landed on the other rookie who introduced himself as Larry Macer, excitedly explaining how Officer John Nolan had inspired him to join the LAPD despite his age but as he rambled on excitedly, his hand moved to his gun belt and accidentally set his gun off, sending the bullet through the window and narrowly missing an officer who was walking by. After the situation had been calmed, Sergeant Grey turned to you.

“Officer l/n, your training officer is Officer Bradford. Go and get acquainted. Officer Macer? My office. Everyone else is dismissed.” Grey says, glancing at you briefly before turning his attention to Larry, missing how your eyes widened before you looked over your shoulder, locking eyes with Tim who offers you the faintest of smiles and a nod before you turn back around, offering a sympathetic smile to Larry before joining the rest of the officers in getting up from your seat and making your way to where Tim was waiting for you by the door, a soft smile on his face.

“Hi.” You say softly, not knowing how else to start a conversation after so long.

“Hi,” Tim replies, regarding you with a soft look you haven’t seen in years. As you go to open your mouth to say something to you, he cut you off.

“You should go and get the war bags, I’ll meet you by the shop. We can talk later.” Tim says quietly, making you nod as you go to get the things you need before you start patrol. As you wait, you’re approached by a female officer who smiles and introduces herself as Lucy Chen.

“I see you have Tim as your training officer. If you need someone to talk to after your patrol with him I’ll happily talk with you. He used to be my training officer so I can understand the frustrations that come with training under him.” Lucy says, making your eyebrows furrow slightly, you weren’t ready to spill that you already knew and had worked with Tim in the past but Lucy was describing someone who didn’t sound like Tim at all. Sure Tim had been strict when he needed to be but you couldn’t imagine needing to rant to someone about it.

“Is he that bad?” You ask innocently as you wait to get your bags.

“He has this tendency to give his rookies these ‘Tim Tests’ and it basically forms his whole opinion of you. He doesn’t even give you a warning he just does them. He didn’t even let me drive for the longest time. If it feels like he’s getting too much you can always talk to me.” Lucy offers kindly after explaining what she had to endure.

“Well thank you, Lucy. I’ll be sure to let you know if I need someone to talk to.” You say with a smile as you take the bags handed to you, nodding at Lucy before you head over to where Tim is waiting for you.

“You ready?” Tim asks, arms folded across his chest as you nod, adjusting the bags on your shoulders. Tim then leads you out to where the shop is, explaining certain components as you take in the sight of the vehicle, listening to every word he says. Once Tim told you everything he told every rookie, he looked at you with a smile.

“You drive,” Tim says, tossing you the keys as you catch them quickly, a look of shock covering your face. After what Lucy had said you hadn’t expected Tim to allow you to drive already.

“Thank you.” You mumble softly, loading the bags into the trunk of the shop before making your way to the driver's seat, climbing into it and starting the engine while Tim climbs into the passenger seat. As you begin your patrol, you can sense Tim’s slight awkwardness but he was trying to act normal.

“It’s been a while, hasn’t it?” Tim asks quietly as you glance at him out of the corner of your eyes.

“Tim, I’m not sure this is the time to have this conversation.” You say, feeling bad that you’re cutting the conversation off before it can even start but you knew that you and Tim needed to sit down if you were going to have a conversation about how long it had been since you last spoke.

“You’re right. We can talk properly on our lunch break.” Tim agrees with a nod, realising that you were right and that he needs to focus on teaching you and not let his emotions get in the way.

“I have missed you.” You then say softly, smiling briefly as you look over at Tim who smiles back.

“I’ve missed you too.” Tim then says before focusing his attention on his surroundings. You continue to drive around until you hear a call come through on the radio regarding a report of loud noise coming from a house that had neighbours both suspicious and annoyed. You accepted the report since you were in the area and made your way to the house. As you pull up outside the house, Tim quickly questions you on the protocol of how to approach this situation and judging by Tim’s smile, you had got the answer right when you replied. With confidence that you know the protocol, Tim nods and gets out of the shop.

“I’ll take the lead on this one, just to get you used to these types of calls,” Tim says as you then get out of the vehicle. You join Tim by his side and follow him to where one of the neighbours has been waiting for your arrival.

“Thank you for getting here so quickly, officers. They’ve been so loud and it’s not only disturbing the neighbourhood but I’m concerned about what’s happening in there.” The lady says quickly, rambling as you pull out your notebook, beginning to make notes as she talks, making sure you get her name as well.

“Okay, we’ll check it out, ma’am. You can go back inside now.” You say with a polite smile, gesturing for the woman to head back into her own house so you don’t have to worry about her getting involved in any altercations if the reported neighbours turn violent. After the lady goes back inside, you and Tim approach the door, hearing faint shouts inside. You and Tim exchange a glance before Tim lifts his hand to knock on the door, silencing the yells as you both wait for the door to be opened. Soon enough, a burly man opens the door, arms folded across his chest as if he is trying to intimidate you and Tim with his muscles.

“Hello, I’m Officer Bradford, this is Officer l/n. We got reports of some loud noise and your neighbours had complained. Is everything okay?” Tim asks, introducing both himself and you before explaining why you’d turned up at his front door.

“Everything’s fine. Just watching a football game you know how it is right Officer?” The man says to Tim with a forced laugh. Tim nodded slightly, his eyes flicking over the man's shoulder as you both caught a glimpse of someone moving behind him.

“Is there anyone else in the house we can talk to?” You ask, acting as if you hadn’t noticed the movement behind him and focused back on him as he shakes his head.

“Just me.” The man says as you see more movement coming from behind him.

“I’m sorry. I keep seeing something moving behind you. Is there someone else?” You ask again and the man whips around to see who you are talking about before turning back to you with a faux smile.

“Oh, that’s no one.” He insists.

“Well, I’d like to ask them a couple of questions if that’s alright.” You say, glancing over his shoulder once more, missing how his expression shifted.

“It’s no one so you don’t need to stick your nose where it doesn’t belong. You just stick to standing there looking pretty, sweetheart. That’s all you women officers are good for anyway.” At his words, you clenched your jaw, unable to believe what he just said to you.

“Alright, who’s in the house?” Tim asks, ready to step forward but before he can, the man lashes out, shoving you aggressively and sending you stumbling back, your hip slamming strongly onto the wooden bannister on the porch steps making you wince as a strong wave of pain shoots through your hip. Tim was quick to grab the man before he could make a run for it, quickly pinning him to the floor and pulling his hands behind his back, reading him his rights as he handcuffed him.

“Are you okay?” Tim asks, looking up at you with worried eyes when he sees you holding your hip with a pained expression.

“No, I’m not. Get off me!” The man grumbles, attempting to wiggle out from under where Tim’s knee was digging into his back.

“Shut up. I’m not talking to you. y/n, are you alright?” Tim says, at first directed to the man squirming before returning his attention to you.

“I’m fine.” You reply, your words slightly forced as you straighten up, trying to hide a wince at the movement.

“Go and check the house while I load this asshole into the shop. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” Tim says, getting up and hauling the man to his feet and leading him to the shop as you carefully pull your gun from your holster as the pain begins to fade.

“LAPD, is there anyone in here?” You call out as you enter the house, your hands steadying on your gun as you glance around the rooms, continuing to call out as you walk around.

“I’m coming out.” You hear a timid voice say and you wait as a woman exits one of the rooms you hadn’t checked yet. As she stepped closer you could see her bruising eye and the drying blood on her lips.

“I’m not going to hurt you. Come here so I can check you out.” You encourage gently, returning your gun to your holster and gently encouraging the woman over and leading her to the kitchen so you could wet some kitchen roll and gently wipe the blood away from her lip.

“Is Kevin-?” She starts tearily, choking on her words as you shush her gently.

“Hey, let’s not worry about him right now. What’s your name?” You ask quietly, changing the subject to try and calm her down.

“Diana.” She sniffles, a tear slipping down her cheek as you throw the bloodied paper towel in the nearest bin you can find.

“That’s a lovely name. I’m y/n.” You say gently introducing yourself to Diana with a soft smile.

“What’s going to happen?” Diana then asks fearfully, looking around as if Kevin was going to appear out of nowhere.

“I’m going to call for someone to come and help you and then my training officer and I are going to take Kevin to the station.” You explain carefully, watching as Diana wipes at her eyes, wincing as she rubs against the bruising. You take a second to step away from Diana, radioing for an ambulance and additional officers to head to the hospital with Diana to get statements and make sure she’s okay. You quickly get a response and you take Diana out to sit on the porch steps while you wait for the other officers and the ambulance to arrive. Soon enough, Lucy and another officer arrive, approaching when you wave them over. You get up from the porch steps, telling Diana to stay put while you get Lucy up to date.

“What’s happened? Is everything okay?” Lucy asks as you approach them.

“Tim and I got a report of yelling from this house and from the looks of things the man Tim’s loaded up into our shop had gotten physical with Diana. I’ve called for an ambulance just to get her checked over because I don’t know if she’s hit her head or anything and if it’s okay I’d feel better leaving her with some other officers to take any statements while Tim and I get that asshat back to the station.” You explain watching as both of them nod.

“You got it,” Lucy says, smiling softly as she glances over at Diana who is wiping her eyes.

“Sorry, I haven’t had a chance to introduce myself yet. I’m Jackson West.” Jackson introduces himself quickly, shaking your hand as you smile, introducing yourself in return.

“How’s it been with Tim so far?” Lucy asks, her eyes flicking over to Tim who is leaning against the shop, arms folded as he watches the interaction carefully.

“It’s been fine. Nothing I can’t handle.” You say with a smile.

“Really?” Jackson asks incredulously, thinking back to when he had a patrol with Tim.

“y/n! Let’s go!” Your conversation is cut short by Tim calling out to you.

“I’m coming!” You reply, bidding a quick goodbye to Lucy and Jackson before crossing to where Tim is waiting for you. You approach Tim with a smile, your smile faltering when you see Tim’s concerned expression.

“I know I asked you earlier but are you okay? I saw you wincing after he pushed you.” Tim asks, concerned.

“I’m fine. It’s just where… well you know. We can talk about it later.” You say, nodding to assure Tim that you are okay.

“You good to drive?” Tim then asks.

“Yep.” You say as Tim nods, gesturing for you to get behind the wheel as he rounds the car to get in the passenger seat.

“Is he seriously letting her drive?” Lucy asks, looking over at Jackson to confirm they are seeing the same thing.

“Looks like it,” Jackson says, sparing a brief glance over at the shop before focusing his attention back on Diana.

“He never let me drive,” Lucy grumbles, watching as your shop pulls away and begins to drive off, leaving Lucy and Jackson to handle everything while you head back to the station.

It only takes you half an hour to get back to the station, but the whole time you had to put up with Kevin and his abundance of sexist comments he continually aimed at you. He was even undeterred by Tim’s threats to tape his mouth shut and by the time you reached the station, you were ready to be rid of him. Once you had processed him, you shoved him in the nearest cell.

“Aw come on sweetheart. You’re so uptight about nothing.” Kevin says, a cocky smirk on his face as you roll your eyes shutting the cell door on him and heading over to Tim.

“You handled that well,” Tim states, his smile small and supportive as you nod.

“It’s not the first time I’ve dealt with sexist assholes. You knew that though.” You say, receiving a nod as both you and Tim remember the ways some other soldiers had treated you.

“Look, let’s patrol a little more and then we can grab some lunch. Sound good?” Tim says, clearing his throat and gesturing with his head for you to follow him which you do so with a small smile. You follow Tim back out to your shop, both of you climbing into the vehicle and continuing your patrol. The patrol was relatively calm, you pulled over a few reckless drivers and stopped a car theft before it could even happen. By the time your lunch break rolled around your stomach was growling and desperate for food. You decided to head out to the food trucks near the station and you and Tim both ordered your food, as you reached to get your money, Tim quickly pulled out his wallet and paid for both meals.

“Tim, you didn’t need to do that!” You exclaim with a disbelieving laugh, slapping his arm as his jaw drops in mock shock.

“I wanted to.” He replies as he receives his change, putting it in his wallet before returning his wallet to his pocket.

“What a gentleman. Buying me lunch on my first shift.” You tease, finally finding the courage to slip back into the familiar dynamic you and Tim had shared back in your military days.

“What can I say?” Tim shrugs jokingly as you laugh.

“Oh, so he’s buying her lunch now?” Lucy complains, watching you and Tim from across the space.

“Lucy, it’s probably not that deep,” Jackson says, trying to reassure his best friend that she’s reading too much into everything.

“No, he let her drive. She’s not complained to me about a Tim Test. He bought her lunch. And, he’s smiling.” Lucy says, listing the various things she’s noticed from the morning alone.

“Okay, so what? Do you want Tim to go around traumatising every rookie he teaches? Maybe he was tough on you because he knew you could handle it.” Jackson says, stabbing his food with his fork as he offers a reason as to why Tim was acting differently.

“No, there’s something going on between them. I’m going to figure it out because Tim Bradford doesn’t smile and here he is acting like the total opposite of himself.” Lucy says, folding her arms and leaning back in her chair as she watches you and Tim collect your food and cross to a vacant table.

“So, what have you been doing since the Army?” Tim asks curiously, beginning to dig into his food as you shrug.

“I kinda jumped from job to job. Tried a couple of different office jobs for a while but you know me I can’t sit still for anything so I needed to get into a more active job and well here we are now.” You explain, thinking back to the various jobs you had before finding yourself a job in the police force.

“I am still so sorry about what happened back on that tour.” Tim apologises, his eyes portraying every ounce of guilt he was feeling.

“Tim, you have nothing to apologise for. It wasn’t your fault.” You say, eyebrows furrowing in confusion, tilting your head to the side slightly.

“I was your Sergeant. It was my job to look after you all. And out of everyone, I let you down the most.” Tim argues, watching as you shake your head, the conversation feeling all too familiar.

“You’re also the reason I’m still alive. I’d be dead if it weren’t for you.” You emphasise, getting a sudden burst of courage to reach across the table and squeeze Tim’s hand as both of you remember that day.

“How much longer did they say we’d be out here?” You ask, walking alongside Tim as your squadron patrols the perimeter outside the base you were currently living in.

“A couple more months? I don’t know we’re mostly playing it by ear right now.” Tim replies, his eyes flicking around as he surveys the area.

“Well, I suppose it’s not awful. It means I get to spend more time with you.” You say with a joking wink as Tim scoffs lightly, rolling his eyes at your comment.

“I suppose being stuck with you for a few more months isn’t the worst thing in the world.” Tim muses, cocking an eyebrow as you gasp with a smile, lightly slapping his shoulder.

“I’m a delight to be around and you know it.” You brag, looking at Tim as he lets out a soft sigh and shrugs lightly.

“You’re definitely not the worst of the bunch I’ll give you that.” Tim then says.

“You can admit it. I know I’m your favourite. Come on, I won’t tell the others. Promise.” You say, glancing around and noticing that none of the of the others were in earshot. But before Tim could even open his mouth to respond a gunshot rang out, the bullet embedding itself in your hip. You turned to Tim with a look of terror he had never seen from you before and soon enough another bullet hit your shoulder, sending you to the floor.

“Get down!” Tim yells out to his other soldiers, all of them diving behind cover as Tim pulls you behind cover with him, instantly analysing your wounds and bracing a hand over each wound, pressing down as you cry out in pain.

“I know. I’m sorry. We’ll get you out of here.” Tim says reassuringly, hearing more bullets flying and ducking down over you, shielding you from any potential harm. Tim then digs around in his various pockets and pouches and manages to find some gauze that he holds on each of your wounds, apologising again as you whimper.

“T-Tim…” You try, only to be gently shushed by Tim.

“Don’t try to talk. I got you, okay? I’ve got to make sure my favourite gets back alive, right?” Tim jokes weakly, laughing as tears begin to well in his eyes. You let out a weak chuckle of your own, instantly regretting your actions as you wince at the pain. Tim was vaguely aware of people yelling and more bullets firing but his sole focus was on getting you to safety. As the gunfire begins to quieten down, a vehicle pulls up alongside Tim and medical personnel leap out, loading you onto a stretcher as you groan in pain and as Tim goes to follow them, he’s stopped.

“Sergeant Bradford. We’ve got it from here, focus on the rest of your squadron.” They say, stopping Tim in his tracks as he’s brought back to the reality that the rest of his squadron was also there.

“Are you all okay?” Tim asks, crossing to everyone as they begin to make their way back to base, even more vigilant than they were earlier.

“All good, Sarge.”

“Can’t believe those assholes shot y/n.” Tim gets a variety of responses from his squadron as he ushers them back to the base, not wanting to risk the safety of his squadron any further. The moment, they all made it back to the base, Tim turned to his squadron.

“Okay guys, take some time to decompress. I’ll come and check in with you all when I can.” Tim says, getting nods from everyone as they disperse. Tim then turns and heads in the direction of the medical area on base.

“Is y/n l/n here?” Tim asks the first medic he finds, thankful that it was the medic both you and him were familiar with.

“Yes. I think they’ve just finishing up with treating her. She should recover well but we’re worried about the placement of one of the bullets. She may need to be flown back home.” Mark explains, folding his arms as he explains the situation.

“Shit.” Tim sighs, bowing his head in shame as the seriousness of the situation sinks in.

“I’ll go and check on her and if everything’s all sorted you can see her,” Mark says with a soft smile before heading back to check in on you. Tim waits awkwardly for a moment, anxiously beginning to pace as a way to try and control his anxieties as best he can. As he paced, Tim made the fatal mistake of looking down at his hands where his gloves were stained with your blood, a reminder of what had just transpired. He pulled them off in a hurry, shoving them as deep into his pockets as he could as if that would make them disappear. Just as Tim shoved his gloves away, Mark returned.

“You can go and check on her.” As soon as those words leave Mark’s mouth, Tim makes his way back to where you were lying on a bed, smiling weakly at him.

“Hey, Sarge.” You mumble, eyes half closed as you look at Tim.

“Oh, now I’m ‘Sarge’?” Tim says jokingly as he eases himself down into a nearby seat.

“Hey, I’ve been shot I think I can call you whatever I want.” You joke, laughing softly which makes you wince at the pain.

“Are you okay?” Tim then asks softly.

“Like I got shot.” You say, attempting another joke as Tim watches you with an unimpressed expression.

“Funny,” Tim replies dryly.

“Aw come on, I’m hilarious.” You say, attempting to bring a smile to Tim’s face.

“You scared the shit out of me,” Tim says seriously, making your smile falter.

“I am sorry. I should’ve paid more attention to what was going on around us.” You admit, your gaze flicking to the bed as Tim lets out a soft sigh, softening at your dejected expression.

“It’s not your fault. I’m the Sergeant it was my responsibility to watch out for all of you and I let you down.” Tim argues as you sigh.

“Tim…” You start, not knowing what else you could say to convince him that he wasn’t to blame for what happened.

“Have they said what’s happening with you?” Tim then asks, changing the subject slightly.

“They’re… they’re sending me back home. Apparently, the bullet that hit me first is pretty embedded in my hip and there’s not much they can do about it out here. They don’t think I’ll be able to come back.” You say, tears already beginning to well in your eyes.

“Like come back to active duty? I’ll be able to see you on base back home.” Tim asks, confused as to why you were so visibly upset.

“No, Tim.” You say quietly and that makes Tim realise what you meant.

“Oh…” He mumbles, his gaze flicking to the floor. He now understood that you meant that you had a high chance of getting medically discharged completely with your injury.

“I can come and visit you when I’m back stateside.” Tim offers, smiling lightly as you nod.

“I’d like that.” You say with a soft smile.

Despite that offer. You never saw Tim again. Until you joined Mid-Wilshire.

You’re shaken out of your thoughts of the past by Tim sighing lightly, shaking his head and withdrawing his hand from underneath yours, feeling unworthy of the affection you were showing him.

“I still feel awful. I said I’d come and see you once I came home and I never did.” Tim says, watching as you shrug.

“I didn’t exactly reach out either. I’m just as much to blame.” You say with a soft laugh, knowing that you could’ve easily reached out to Tim.

“But I said I’d visit you. You got discharged from the Army and I didn’t even try hard enough to contact you.” Tim insists.

“I didn’t exactly make myself easy to find.” You argue back, knowing that after you were fully discharged from the Army you practically hid away for the rest of your recovery, moping about the career you had lost.

“It seems like the world didn’t want us apart for too long though. It got me assigned here, didn’t it?” You then say, brightening as you think of the good that has come out of this.

“That is true,” Tim admits with a soft laugh, nodding in agreement. The two of you then spend the rest of your lunch break talking and catching up on the things you’d missed out on over the years you hadn’t seen each other. As you finish telling Tim about a story from your time at the academy, Tim checks his watch and notices the time.

“We should head back out on patrol. I’ll throw the trash out, you can wait by the shop.” Tim says, already beginning to pick up all the wrappers and packaging before you can even protest and even when you went to try and object, Tim gave you a look that shut you up before you could say a word.

“Alright.” You sigh, getting up from your chair and heading over to the parked vehicle while Tim heads over to the bin.

“Okay, Tim. What is up with you and y/n?” Lucy demands, approaching Tim and folding her arms as he raises an eyebrow.

“And what makes you think you have any right to demand that information from me?” Tim asks, an authoritarian tone slipping into his voice as he talks.

“I’m not a rookie anymore and I’m curious. You’re treating her so much better than you ever treated me.” Lucy states, watching Tim carefully.

“It’s none of your business.” Tim then says, rolling his eyes as Lucy sighs heavily.

“Please.” Lucy pleads, making Tim exhale strongly.

“Fine. I used to be y/n’s Sergeant in the Army. We haven’t seen each other in years and I know how she learns best so I’m going to teach her in a way that’ll be effective to her.” Tim says, frustrated that he’s being forced to explain himself but he knew it would get Lucy off his back and he knew that he could trust her to not spread it around. At least not too much.

“Oh…” Lucy starts.

“I taught you the way that I did because I knew it would be effective. I wasn’t an asshole for the sake of it.” Tim explains further, feeling bad that Lucy felt he was being harsh for the sake of it. He knew Lucy was a capable police officer so his harsh method had been because he knew she could do it.

“Right… I’m sorry for acting like that I was just expecting you to act the way I was used to and when you didn’t I guess it threw me off.” Lucy stammers, stumbling over her words as she apologises.

“It’s okay, Chen. Just don’t go blurting it around everywhere. I need to go back on patrol so I’m trusting you.” Tim says, forgiving Lucy for her outburst. After bidding each other a quick goodbye, Tim makes his way back over to where you were waiting by the shop and you go back out on patrol.

The rest of your patrol went relatively smoothly. You got called out for various calls and your confidence began to grow with each different call you worked on and by the end of your shift, you felt like you had a successful shift. As you got back to the station and exited the shop, you turned to Tim with a smile.

“How did I do?” You ask, looking at Tim and trying to gauge his reaction, reminding him of when he first became Sergeant and had spent time overseeing his squadron’s training and you had asked him how you’d done after practising some shooting.

“You did great,” Tim replied, exactly the same way he had done years ago when you had shown off your shooting ability.

“I can’t believe I’ve finished my first shift.” You mumble, unable to believe that your first shift was over. You had worked so hard since your injury to get into a good enough condition to be able to maintain working in such a demanding job like the LAPD and you had proved to yourself that you could do it.

After returning the war bags, you and Tim head into the locker room to get back into your civvies. When you leave, you bump into Tim once more as you head out to the car park.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Tim.” You whisper softly, smiling at him which he reciprocates. Tim’s eyebrows furrow for a moment in thought and before you could ask him what was wrong, he speaks up.

“Do you want a grab a drink with me? My treat.” Tim says in a moment of bravery, his question taking you aback for a moment before a smile breaks out across your face.

“How can I say no to you?” You reply, making Tim’s eyes widen before a large smile breaks out on his face.

“Great! Give me your number and I’ll text you where to meet me.” Tim says, and you nod, pulling out your phone and giving Tim your number. Once you have each other’s numbers you prepare to head your separate ways to get ready before heading to the bar.

“I’ll see you later, Tim.” You say before you begin to walk away, unable to contain the smile that remains on your face as you make your way back to your car.

Yes, it had been years since you last saw Tim Bradford. But he still owned your heart like he had never left. And you couldn’t be mad at him about it for a second.

Tim Tags (comment or ask to be added):

@callsigns-haze

#justabigassnerd #justabigassnerd writes #the rookie #the rookie abc #the rookie fic #the rookie fanfic #the rookie imagine #tim bradford #tim bradford the rookie #tim bradford fic #tim bradford x reader #tim bradford x you #tim bradford x y/n #tim bradford imagine #tim bradford x fem!reader

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areislol · 1 year ago

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A time to tell

► PAIRINGS. genshin men x gn! creator! reader

► GENRE. sagau, reverse isekai, domestic life/slice of lofe, explicit/sexual (18+ for the nsfw chapters) themes.

SYNOPSIS. albedo created a machine where it would bring back their creator, who was stuck in another world, back to where they belong. but instead of bringing you here to them, it brought them to you.

WARNINGS. eventual smut, harem, angst with comfort.

STATUS. on going//i will try to update as fast and best as i can but i do procrastinate a lot so.. i do have school and work to do so updates may be a bit slow.. i will try my best though!! i do not have a specific update time, i just update whenever I finish a chapter so please bear with me, i wish i had an allocated timetable or something but i just can't fit that into my schedule (posting on a specific time).

EXTRA. i started this series because i needdd to feed my love for reverse isekai fics and i saw that there werent a lot so i was like !!! why not create my own? also, the chapters that had NSFW content in them will have the 🔞 logo beside the chapter name.

- reader is in college (has a part time job)

TAGLIST. open

> RECOMMENDED SONGS WILL BE INCLUDED IN THE CHAPTERS <

“y/n, we will be here for you for however you want us to be, we will leave even if you asked us to just please, please don’t leave us.”

chapter index

i. chapter one - the start of it all

◇─where you find yourself in a room with 24 handsome men, the thing is.. you know them from the popular game that you even played and spent hundreds of money on.. genshin impact!

ii. chapter two - the morning after

◇─the morning after everything had happened, you decided to do a little bonding session.. which was by watching your favourite movies with them of course!

iii. chapter three - a shopping spree

◇─you decide to go shopping to buy some things for you and the men, you bond by watching movies with them and playing UNO.

iv. chapter four - "you really took took care of us, huh?"

◇─a couple days goes by after meeting the men, all is going good, your daily routine has changed, and the fact that you start work tomorrow too doesn't help anything at all.

v. chapter five - Back to work

◇─you have to return back to work after having your days off, little did you know you would find out something that would absolutely make you feel at unease and that would make you paranoid forever.

MINI FIC - Merry christmas! (wait why are we supposed to say that again?)

◇─celebrate christmas with them!!

vi. chapter six - The stalker

◇─not in a million years did you expect to ever get yourself a stalker, how did you? no idea. but with the sudden help of a woman she manages to find a way to catch the stalker. will you and your friends or well, the men, see her ever again, and will they meet for the good or bad?

vi. chapter seven - A walk in the park

◇─deciding that it has been quite some time since the men went out, you take them out to a park and have a picnic, bonding time if you will.

viii. chapter eight - Credit where it's not due

◇─you finally have some time to understand elisa, and to be honest, you aren't sure if you and her get along.

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judgedarts · 3 months ago

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after 1 billion years.. my shop has finally been updated!!

⭐shop link⭐

i'm most excited to debut my ygo plush coin pouches and liquid shaker charms! the coin pouches have been in development for quite a while and i wanted them to be 1000% ready before showing off any photos 🥺 thank you so much for your guys' patience, and i really hope everything is to your liking!! <33 you can read further below for some thoughts for future products:

thanks for clicking! this year has been really challenging trying to balance cons and finding a routine, and also trying to update my store so i really appreciate you guys for sticking around and being so patient regardless :,) and speaking of the plushies, they genuinely did take 1 year from initial sketches to final product development @_@ this was my first time attempting plush, and i unfortunately chose to do incredibly complicated designs haha.. the amount of back and forth i did with multiple suppliers, trying to fix minute details, all the late nights and frustration was still worth it, because i think they came out really phenomenally 😭❤️ill also be attempting to create samples for a joey, kaiba, jaden, and yusei coin pouch. im honestly a little scared of the yusei design i came up with, but i have a vision that i want to achieve despite the challenges i see up ahead 🫡 ive also been meaning to expand my ygo crossbody bag line this year, but the plushies genuinely took up so much of my time that i couldn't allocate more time/energy into starting them. i already know what i want the GX and 5DS bags to look like, so please stay tuned! im aiming to have preorders for them ready by early 2025. i want to rep a jack atlas bag SO bad i will frow up!!!! i also wanted to try out these liquid shaker charms! ive always wanted to make something like this so im really thrilled with how they came out - im planning on adding more characters to this lineup since they're i can draw the little chibis pretty fast! for non ygo fanmerch - i would love to phase out some jojos items and make merch for some nostalgic video game/anime i enjoyed growing up!! as for comics... please also stay tuned! im really looking forward to prioritizing some sequential art going into 2025. i hope yall will also look forward to my shortbox comic T_T<3! thank you if you read all of this, it really means a lot!

#yugioh #saiki k #dr stone #mairimashita iruma kun #the jojolands #sorry to tag those when a majority of the post is yugioh.... rofl

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colebabey888 · 2 months ago

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Financing 101: Handling your money| IT GIRL DIARIES

A few financial tips my father shared with me that has kept me secure and taught me valuable lessons on saving and future planning..

When it comes to managing your money, always apply the 30:30:30:10 rule. This means allocating 30% towards your day-to-day or monthly expenses, 30% towards investments, 30% for future retirement savings, and 10% for your wants and luxuries.

I consider myself fortunate to live with my parents, which means I don’t have to cover utilities or household expenses. However, instead of spending all of my income on luxuries and my wants, I divide it thoughtfully. I allocate 15% more towards investments, ensuring that my money works for me and provides a return. The remaining 15% is set aside and added to my personal wants and luxuries.

Don't use the full amount for luxuries because you want to make sure that you are using the extra funds wisely. This way, you can contribute towards your future plans, even if while living with parents. It’s important to enjoy the present, but always be prepared for the future.

Never keep all your money in one bank account. There are several reasons for this. If you don’t see your money, you’re less likely to spend it, by keeping your investments and savings in a separate account that you rarely check, you’re less tempted to dip into them so keep them separate from your regular income in a different bank account. Also having your money spread out in multiple accounts is much more safer than having it all in one place.

Always put your savings and investments into a high yield savings account so that your money doesn't lose value due to inflation overtime and you profit through interest return.

If you notice your income increasing significantly, it might be wise to consult a financial advisor or get an accountant. A professional can provide valuable advice on how to save, invest, and manage your growing assets effectively.

ALWAYS use a separate bank account for online shopping. Opt for digital payment platforms like PayPal or Venmo. Even with reputable brands, it’s safer not to provide your primary bank details. I personally use a completely separate account for online shopping, only transferring money when needed, and it has kept me secure for a long time.

mwah! xoxo, colebabey8.88

www.thedigitaldollar/gumroad.com

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adrianfridge · 1 year ago

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I don't think enough people talk about the physical and mental energy it takes to cook when you weren't raised to cook.

It's not as simple as here are the ingredients and here are the steps. Cooking involves multi-tasking, timing, proportions, prepping, improvising, and more. The more complex the dish, the more juggling it requires.

Oh, and I haven't even mentioned obtaining the ingredients and the cleaning afterwards.

All these "healthy" and "save money" and "live better" motivational speeches to get people to cook more, and I'm over here like Cooking is Fucking Stressful and Incredibly Draining Actually.

I was raised a girl, but I'm entirely self-taught because my mom hated cooking and never bothered to teach me. She was convinced I'll just naturally learn on my own after I got married and was forced to cook for my husband and family 🙃

Anyway, I went through a HelloFresh phase several years ago to try to kick-start myself into a groove, but it never really latched on. I think the only thing I learned is the importance of prepping ingredients in advance so that once I'm bouncing around, things are just ready for me to grab.

This isn't to say I don't cook AT ALL EVER. I can make eggs on a skillet just fine. But it's a one-and-done kind of thing. Much like putting together a cold cut sandwich. But that's not Cooking™.

Turns out this past month I randomly got a hyperfixation to Cook™, so here I am facing the bone-tired aftermath of making meals that'll last more than one day.

After three weekends of going through it, here's how I autistically started handling the stress:

Find a recipe I will follow

Envision myself going through the steps and allocate a certain amount of energy to the task

Compile ingredients I need to obtain (or get my partner to obtain)

(If I have to go shopping myself, do it on a separate day from when I have to cook)

Open a Google Doc and copy/paste the recipe into it

Rewrite the recipe steps based on how I imagine I'll be going through them once I'm in motion

Mentally practice the steps

When it's time to cook, go through steps as I've mentally practiced them, with improvisation when real life takes a different turn

(If a lot of prep work is required, such as peeling and cutting potatoes, sit down to do it with a podcast before starting on anything else)

After cooking is complete, throw out any lingering garbage

My partner does the dishes :)

I'm sure it'll get easier the longer I do it, but this is exactly why I'm 34yo and always hated Cooking™ to the point that I budget for delivery and take-out on nearly a daily basis.

Cooking is hard actually.

#personal #cooking #brought to you by Shepherd's Pie that took Forever today

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happilychee · 11 months ago

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how good I think fairy tail characters are at traveling pt. 1

♡ gray fullbuster -> he's calm and reliable; he'll check the route before the trip and always have a map on hand to make sure you're going the right way. overall a 9/10 experience. -1 point because he doesn't make time to stop and look at trinkets >:(

*this is if you're traveling just with him though. if you add basically anyone else, including natsu, cana, loke, or lucy, gray will become completely distracted and you might never get to your destination.

♡ erza scarlet -> she'll get you to your destination. you might obtain life-altering trauma, bury a body, and become a local eldtritch legend, but you will get to your destination. 8/10 if you don't mind coming out of the experience Changed.

♡ mirajane strauss -> this can go one of two ways. if you're with other people, mira goes into Big Sister Mode, and you will get to your destination with minimal shenanigans. she does factor in Trinket Time, so overall a 10/10 experience. if it's just mira, though, prepare to go on a spiritual rollercoaster. no plans, no tickets, no maps, just vibes. mira likes to explore new towns and cities without worrying about a schedule or keeping track of other people. she has disappeared for a week straight to just wander around fiore. it's about the journey, not the destination, y'know?

♡ lucy heartfilia -> this poor girl isn't directionally challenged but she is financially challenged. will accidentally spend your train money on a cute necklace in whatever town you're stopping in. she's a good travel companion, willing to socialize with the locals and find out the best sight-seeing and restaurant spots. allocates a bit too much time for Trinkets. you'll probably arrive at your destination with empty pockets but full hearts (and shopping bags.) a 7.5/10, could be higher or lower depending on how much you value your wallet.

♡ natsu dragneel -> just give up. if he doesn't scoop you up in his arms as happy flies the two of you in the completely wrong direction, natsu's probably wandering off without you. gets distracted by everything: food, shiny objects, bickering people. you're working double time to get to your destination in one piece AND not lose natsu in the process. a 4/10 that can be upgraded to a 6 or 7 if you buy him a fire-resistant leash backpack.

♡ sting eucliffe -> surprisingly, he's the one coordinating your trip. all cheery smiles and lighthearted jokes, he makes it look easy. you don't even know what train you're getting on or how long the ride is, you just trust sting. he's charming everyone: the train conductor, the old ladies at the market stalls, the young ticket seller at the station. all of that completely disappears once you get on the train and sting is reduced to a nauseous puddle of dragon slayer. 10/10 experience as long as he doesn't throw up on you <2

♡ gajeel levy and pantherlily -> where's gajeel? you don't know. he was supposed to be at the station half an hour ago, he won't answer his lacrima, he's gone off the map. don't worry, though, levy and pantherlily will keep you company. 2/10 for gajeel. the worst part is, he shows up at your destination before you! he didn't even take the train or fly with lily! he's just... there somehow.

#lychee writes #fairy tail #fairy tail headcanons #fairy tail x reader #gray fullbuster #erza scarlet #mirajane strauss #lucy heartfilia #natsu dragneel #can u tell how biased I am with sting lmfao #sting eucliffe #gajeel redfox

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satanghulu · 11 days ago

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21 QUESTIONS

✦ PAIRING: satan x g!n reader ✦ SUMMARY: coffee shop au kinda, idk how to summarise this either lmao but its just fluff don't worry ✦ WC: 1.1K

| MASTERLIST

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“So where are you from?”

What was supposed to be an innocuous question sent the blond-haired man into a spiral.

“Devildom.”

“What kind of people do you like?”

The washcloth you were using to wipe the coffee mug stopped in its motion as you paused, wondering if it was worth looking up. The man waits for you to answer, casting a shadow in your line of sight.

Never mind his weird follow-up, what was up with his answer?

“Devildom?”

You pointedly ignored his question, resuming your actions. There were only a couple of things left to do, which was why Satan was following you like a puppy. You meet his gaze as he stares at you with pursed lips.

Thankfully, the morning rush had already subsided leaving only the mess of the counter behind. Thus, leading to this… conversation, you weren’t quite sure how you ended up. You were almost certain that the topic before was your evening plans after the work shift.

“Er, I mean I was adopted. Never mind me, what are your interests?”

Your hands float in the air, startled by his declaration. With a flex of your finger, you set the clean mug at its allocated place below the counter. You pressed your lips in a tight line.

“Oh, I’m sorry for asking.”

Your tone was polite in fear of another misstep. You lick the edge of your lips, sniffing at a thought. Satan’s eyes were still on you, piercing and bright.

Though, how did “getting adopted” end up as “Devildom”?

Although you had worked a couple of times with Satan, you hadn’t had much of a chance to inquire about his background. Today was a rare occasion to have a conversation that went further than pleasantries considering the usual rush during your scheduled shift.

Going forward, you decided not to ask any more questions regarding families.

“So your interests?” Satan prompted again.

“What is this? 21 questions or something?” You asked wryly, wringing the washcloth dry and turning to hang it on the sink. “I guess the standard things.”

You weren’t quite sure what to make of his behaviour but it seemed harmless enough. It was also cute to see the frown forming on his face as you continued to avoid his questions.

“Do you want to be more specific?”

His voice rang out from the front as you headed towards the back to unpack the stock that had arrived earlier during the day. Humming an unconscious tune, you squatted down intending to lift the box.

Before you could complete the action, the blond-haired man had already picked up the box and was now awaiting your instructions. You hadn’t even heard him come up behind you. Slightly taken aback, you pointed in the direction of the cabinet situated on the left of the store.

“I guess coffee?”

You watched with a faint sense of amusement as Satan crinkled his eyebrows, decidedly not satisfied with your answer.

“I would guess so since we are working at a coffee shop.”

You nod.

“Okay, then. Well, what about you?” You spun around, looking for the caramel syrup to refill before the second batch of customers came in.

“Well, I like cats.” The blond-haired man tapped you on the shoulder, handing over the bottle to you. You looked up in mild surprise before muttering a thanks.

“I think everyone working here knows that.”

You had started bringing a lint roller to work because of how often he came covered in fur. As a barista, it was a cleanliness concern. Nowadays, you just leave the lint roller at work so Satan can use it when both of you aren’t scheduled together.

“Yeah, I thought we were stating the obvious.”

You rolled your eyes.

“Fine, my bad. I’ll be more serious with my answer now.”

You dried off your hand with the towel placed near the sink before tugging your apron down as it had crumpled up during your entire stint.

“What kind of mannerisms do you find attractive?”

You let out a snort.

“Geez, you are persistent.”

You squinted at him and paused for a second.

“Is there a particular answer you want to hear?”

He shrugged, miming a zipping motion and pretending to throw away the key. Satan was great at pushing and pulling with his words, as you have noticed. “I’m just curious.”

“Well, I guess it varies.” You said. A strand of hair had started itching at your nose and your facial expression twisted into a frown. Finally, after refilling the syrup, you set it back on the counter.

“This is getting nowhere.” Satan abruptly says, blocking your path to the counter. He snorts, placing a gentle hand on your shoulder.

“Are you free this evening?”

“You weren’t joking.” You huffed out, admittedly not too surprised.

The determined expression on his face was too cute. It makes you want to tease him even more. It didn’t take a genius to find out that Satan had been flirting with you but honestly, you had thought it was just a playful tidbit between coworkers.

“Sure, why not?” You didn’t have to debate too long on an answer.

Handsome, gentle, and funny. What more could you ask for?

“Great.” You smile at him, standing a step closer.

He wasn’t moving, standing scarily still for some reason. His clear gaze made you feel nervous, but you persisted, tilting your head and waiting for him to continue.

“Would an hour be enough for you to freshen up? We can meet at 7 in front of the subway.”

“Deal.” You nodded.

Ding!

The sound snapped you out of your reverie, noticing that a customer had come in. For a second, you had completely forgotten about your job. You brushed past Satan, intending to head to the front to serve the customer.

…?

“I’m looking forward to spending the evening with you.”

The blond-haired man had grabbed your hand. He bent down, lifting your hand to press a featherlight kiss to the back of your hand. It was a two-hit combo that went straight to your heart.

“I’ll take care of this customer.”

As the ending move, he leaned forward to brush the stray hair that had been bothering you all this while. You could feel your heart splutter at the motion and instantly felt a blush rising up.

T-this madman!

You caught sight of a smirk pulling at the corner of his lips before he left and you immediately wanted to cuss him out. However, the heat staying high on your face prevented you from doing so.

Huh.

You brought up your hand for an inspection even though there was no evidence left behind. Curiously, you looked at the spot that he had kissed.

Satan was much more charming than you had anticipated. You noted dimly.

This could be bad for your heart.

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a/n ▸ this fic is brought to you by kelo (@sheepthatgobaa) and I, you can read this post for more information lol but basically it was a "what if?" situation -> what if lucifer sent satan into the human world as punishment and then he started working at a coffee shop and then the dynamics between reader and him and it just spiralled lol. i currently don't have plans for a full fic for this btw... this just gripped me by the throat

#i dont expect anyone else to get our visions LOL #satangwrites #obey me #obey me shall we date #obey me nightbringer #obey me swd #shall we date om #obey me x you #obey me x reader #obey me satan #satan #obey me satan x you #satan x you #satan x reader #also is this a early happy birthday fic to myself (yes it is)

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mostlysignssomeportents · 5 months ago

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The health industry’s invisible hand is a fist

On June 21, I'm doing an ONLINE READING for the LOCUS AWARDS at 16hPT. On June 22, I'll be in OAKLAND, CA for a panel and a keynote at the LOCUS AWARDS.

The US has the rich world's most expensive health care system, and that system delivers the worst health outcomes of any country in the rich world. Also, the US is unique in relying on market forces as the primary regulator of its health care system. All of these facts are related!

Capitalism's most dogmatic zealots have a mystical belief in the power of markets to "efficiently allocate" goods and services. For them, the process by which goods and services are offered and purchased performs a kind of vast, distributed computation that "discovers the price" of everything. Our decisions to accept or refuse prices are the data that feeds this distributed computer, and the signals these decisions send about our desires triggers investment decisions by sellers, which guides the whole system to "equilibrium" in which we are all better off.

There's some truth to this: when demand for something exceeds the supply, prices tend to go up. These higher prices tempt new sellers into the market, until demand is met and prices fall and production is stabilized at the level that meets demand.

But this elegant, self-regulating system rarely survives contact with reality. It's the kind of simplified model that works when we're hypothesizing about perfectly spherical cows of uniform density on a frictionless surface, but ceases to be useful when it encounters a messy world of imperfect rationality, imperfect information, monopolization, regulatory capture, and other unavoidable properties of reality.

For members of the "efficient market" cult, reality's stubborn refusal to behave the way it does in their thought experiments is a personal affront. Panged by cognitive dissonance, the cult members insist that any market failures in the real world are illusions caused by not doing capitalism hard enough. When deregulation and markets fail, the answer is always more deregulation and more markets.

That's the story of the American health industry in a nutshell. Rather than accepting that people won't shop for the best emergency room while unconscious in an ambulance, or that the "clearing price" of "not dying of cancer" is "infinity," the cult insists that America's worst-in-class, most expensive health system just needs more capitalism to turn it into a world leader.

In the 1980s, Reagan's court sorcerers decreed that they could fix health care with something called "Prospective Payment Systems," which would pay hospitals a lump sum for treating conditions, rather than reimbursing them for each procedure, using competition and profit motives to drive "efficiency." The hospital system responded by "upcoding' patients: if you showed up with a broken leg and a history of coronary disease, they would code you as a heart patient and someone who needed a cast. They'd collect both lump sums, slap a cast on you, and wheel you out the door:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4195137/

As Robert Kuttner writes for The American Prospect, this kind of abuse was predictable from the outset, especially since Health and Human Services is starved of budget for auditors and can only hand out "slaps on the wrist" when they catch a hospital ripping off the system:

https://prospect.org/economy/2024-06-13-fantasyland-general/

Upcoding isn't limited to Medicare fraud, either. Hospitals and insurers are locked in a death-battle over payments, and hospitals' favorite scam is sending everyone to the ER, even when they don't have emergencies (some hospitals literally lock all the doors except for the ER entrance). That way, a normal, uncomplicated childbirth can be transformed into a "Level 5" emergency treatment (the highest severity of emergency) and generate a surprise bill of over $2,700:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/10/27/crossing-a-line/#zero-fucks-given

The US health industry is bad enough to generate a constant degree of political will for change, but the industry (and its captured politicians and regulators) is also canny enough to dream up an endless procession of useless gimmicks designed to temporarily bleed off the pressure for change. In 2018, HHS passed a rule requiring hospitals to publish their prices.

Hospitals responded to this with a shrewd gambit: they simply ignored the rule. So in 2021, HHS made another rule, creating penalties for ignoring the first rule:

https://www.cms.gov/priorities/key-initiatives/hospital-price-transparency/hospitals

The theory here was that publishing prices would create "market discipline." Again, this isn't wholly nonsensical. To the extent that patients have nonurgent conditions and the free time to shop around, being able to access prices will help them. Indeed, if the prices are in a standards-defined, machine-readable form, patients and their advocates could automatically import them, create price-comparison sites, leaderboards, etc. None of this addresses the core problem that health-care is a) a human right and b) not a discretionary expense, but it could help at the margins.

But there's another wrinkle here. The same people who claim that prices can solve all of our problems also insist that monopolies are impossible. They've presided over a decades-long assault on antitrust law that has seen hospitals, pharma companies, insurers, and a menagerie of obscure middlemen merge into gigantic companies that are too big to fail and too big to jail. When a single hospital system is responsible for the majority of care in a city or even a county, how much punishment can regulators realistically subject it to?

Not much, as it turns out. Kuttner describes how Mass Gen Brigham cornered the market on health-care in Boston, allowing it to flout the rules on pricing. In addition to standard tricks – like charging self-pay patients vastly more than insured payments (because individuals don't have the bargaining power of insurers), Mass Gen Brigham's price data is a sick joke.

See for yourself! The portal will send you giant, unstructured, ZIPped text files filled with cryptic garbage like:

https://www.massgeneralbrigham.org/en/patient-care/patient-visitor-information/billing/cms-required-hospital-charge-data

These files have tens of thousands of rows. As a patient, you are meant to parse through these in order to decide whether you're getting ripped off on that HIP STEM 16X203MM SIZE 4 FEMORAL PRESS FIT NEUTRAL REVISION TITANIUM you're in the market for (as it happens, I have two of these in my body).

Kuttner describes the surreal lengths he had to go through to prevent his mother from getting ripped off by Mass Gen through an upcoding hustle. By coding her as "admitted for observation," Mass Gen was able to turn her into an outpatient, with a 20% co-pay (this is down to a GW Bush policy that punishes hospitals that charge Medicare for inpatient care when they could be treated as outpatients – hospitals reflexively game the system to make every patient an outpatient, even if they have overnight hospital stays).

Kuttner's an expert on this: he was national policy correspondent for the New England Journal of Medicine and covers the health beat for the Prospect. Even so, it took him ten hours of phone calls to two doctors' offices and Blue Cross to resolve the discrepancy. The average person is not qualified to do this – indeed, the average person won't even know they've been upcoded.

Needless to say that people in other countries – countries where health care is cheaper and the outcomes are better – are baffled by this. Canadians, Britons, Australians, Germans, Finns, etc do not have to price-shop for their care. They don't have to hawkishly monitor their admission paperwork for sneaky upcodes. They don't have to spend ten hours on the phone arguing about esoteric billing practices.

In a rational world, we'd compare the American system to the rest of the world and say, "Well, they've figured it out, we should do what they're doing." But in good old U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!, the answer to this is more prices, more commercialization, more market forces. Just rub some capitalism on it!

That's where companies like Multiplan come in: this is a middleman that serves other middlemen. Multiplan negotiates prices on behalf of insurers, and splits the difference between the list price and the negotiated price with them:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/07/us/health-insurance-medical-bills.html

But – as the Arm and a Leg podcast points out – this provides the perverse incentive for Multiplan to drive list prices up. If the list price quintuples, and then Multiplan drives it back down to, say, double the old price, they collect more money. Meanwhile, your insurer sticks you with the bill, over and above your deductible and co-pay:

https://armandalegshow.com/episode/multiplan/

The Multiplan layer doesn't just allow insurers to rip you off (though boy does it allow insurers to rip you off), it also makes it literally impossible to know what the price is going to be before you get your procedure. As with any proposition bet, the added complexity is there to make it impossible for you to calculate the odds and figure out if you're getting robbed:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/04/house-always-wins/#are-you-on-drugs

Multiplan is the purest expression of market dynamics brainworms I've yet encountered: solving the inefficiencies created by the complexity of a system with too many middlemen by adding another middle-man who is even more complex.

No matter what the problem is with America's health industry, the answer is always the same: more markets! Are older voters getting pissed off at politicians for slashing Medicare? No problem: just create Medicare Advantage, where old people can surrender their right to government care and place themselves in the loving hands of a giant corporation that makes more money by denying them care.

The US health industry is a perfect parable about the dangers of trusting shareholder accountable markets to do the work of democratically accountable governments. Shareholders love monopolies, so they drove monopolization throughout the health supply chain. As David Dayen writes in his 2020 book Monopolized the pharma industry monopolized first, and put the screws to hospitals:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/01/29/fractal-bullshit/#dayenu

Hospitals formed regional monopolies to counter the seller power of consolidated Big Pharma. That's Mass Gen's story: tapping the capital markets to buy other hospitals in the region until it became too big to fail and too big to jail (and too big to care). Consolidated hospitals, in turn, put the screws to insurers, so they also consolidated, fighting Big Hospital's pricing power.

Monopoly at any point in a supply chain leads to monopoly throughout the supply chain. But patients can't consolidate (that's what governments are for – representing the diffuse interests of people). Neither can health workers (that's what unions are for). So the system screwed everyone: patients paid more for worse care. Health workers put in longer hours under worse conditions and got paid less.

Kuttner describes how his eye doctor races from patient to patient "as if he was on roller skates." When Kuttner wrote him a letter questioning the quality of care, the eye doctor answered that he understood that he was giving his patients short shrift, but explained that he had to, because his pay was half what he needed, relegating him to a small apartment and an old car. The hospital – which skims the payments he gets for care – sets his caseload, and he can't turn down patients.

The answers to this are obvious: get markets out of health care. Unionize health workers. Give regulators the budgets and power to hold health corporations to account.

But for market cultists, all of that can't work. Instead, we have to create more esoteric middlemen like "pharmacy benefit managers" and Multiplan. We need more prices to shovel into the market computer's data-hopper. If we just capitalism hard enough, surely the system will finally work…someday.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/13/a-punch-in-the-guts/#hayek-pilled

#billing codes #health #corruption #ripoffs #arm and a leg podcast #robert kuttner #prices #austrian economics #Prospective Payment Systems #the invisible hand #shop around #a market for lemons #monopoly #monopolization #upcoding

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